Lupita Nyong'o Plays with Cat Yoyo, Says She's Grateful for 'the Truth, Even When It Has Hurt'

Mar. 15, 2025

Lupita Nyong’o and her cat Yoyo.Photo:Lupita Nyong’o Instagram

Lupita Nyong’o Instagram

Lupita Nyong’ois taking stock of what’s important this Thanksgiving.

TheBlack Pantheractress, 40, shared an Instagram post Thursday featuringher cat Yoyo, in which she laid out the many things for which she’s thankful.

“Today, I feel grateful. Grateful for peace: it is not guaranteed. Grateful for the truth: even when it has hurt. Grateful for tears: they have washed away so much pain,” she wrote. “Grateful for therapy: it has kept me sane.”

In the video, Nyong’o played with Yoyo while blocks of text filled in around her and instrumental music played. She went on to express gratitude for other aspects of her life, including her family and friends, and of course, her cat.

“Grateful for family: they have been so kind. Grateful for friends: they have been so present. Grateful for new experiences: they have shifted my energy. Grateful for the ocean: for being constant and ever-changing,” she wrote. “And grateful for Yoyo: he has kept my heart open and tender.

“Through it all, I am grateful,” she captioned the post.

The introspective post comes just over a month after the Academy Award-winning actressannounced her split from boyfriend Selema Masekelain a candid Instagram post.

The star said that she shared the personal news in order to “keep it 💯, and [hoped] that the knowledge of my experience might be useful to someone else out there experiencing the grip of heartbreak who is poised to try and escape from the pain and miss out on the wisdom that comes from it. #Breakup."

Lupita Nyong’o in November.Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Days later, sheannounced she’d adopted Yoyo, writing on Instagram that while she’d long been afraid of cats, she was ready to be open to “change and new possibilities.”

She explained that a friend (who she later revealed to be Tony-nominated sound designer Palmer Herreran) helped her through the process and even accompanied her on visits to several animal shelters.

Initially, Nyong’o was just fostering Yoyo, but realized she couldn’t give him up just three days in.

“I never understood people whose phones were full of photos and videos of their pets — now I am one of those people! It may look like I saved Yoyo, but really, Yoyo is saving me,” she wrote.

source: people.com